ANCIENT AND MODERN FESTIVALS

Ancient and modern festivals in an investigation of the origin of those festivals; how they came about; who started them; where they began; and why they were started.

Muslim and christian today ask question about festivities all year round all around the world:

NEW YEAR,
EASTER,
CHRISTMAX, among christian while

ID AL-ADHA,
ID AL-FITR,
MAULOOD NABIYY,
HIJRAH among muslims and

APRIL FOOL,
WHITE WEDDING,
BIRTHDAY which are generally marked.

We are going to offer references from the scholar to aid us in arriving at a decision about what our attitude should be regarding those festivities.
In-shaAllahu

NEW YEAR’S DAY

New year’s day is the biggest festival of the yearfor many christians. Christian believe new year marks another year since the “death of jesus. They believe that the year belongs to jesus christ; therefore the year is called Anno Domini, i.e “the year of the Lord (Christ)”, that is, the number of the year since Jesus “died”.

ORIGIN OF NEW YEAR

The first new year was celebrated in 713 BC. The guinness Book of Answer says, “The first recorded new year’s festival is that constituted by Numa 713 BC and dedicated to Janus.

Also (Robert J. Myers, Celebration) tell us that, “The Roman, in 152 BC, were the first to use january 1 as the beginning of the year” Note that BC means Before (the birth of) Christ. In other words before the birth of Christ, pagans had been celebrating the New year. The Bible does not record that jesus took part in such a celebration.
Numa dedicated the new year to janus, a roman god, from whom january is obtained. Janus was supposed to be a god with two heads!. The equivalent of janus among the yoruba is Esu: messenger of the gods; master of deception; curator of evils! Today, the festival dedicated to janus is sustained by New Year celebration

THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR

The gregorian calendar is named after pope gregory xiii. The calendar is so called because gregory xiii was the last person to “reform” its precursor, the julian calendar, in 1582 CE. The refprmation was thought necessary becos of inaccurancies in calculating the solar calendar

THE NUMAN CALENDAR

The first person to reform the calendar was Numa. He was also the first person to celebrate the new year festival, as it is currently known in the world.

Months origin
March.... Named for Mars
April.... Named for Aphrodite
May .... Named for Maia
June .... Named for Juno
Quintilis.... Latin for fifth as in quintusplets
Sextilis.... Latin for sixth as in sextet
September..... Latin for seventh as in septennial
October..... Latin for eighth as in octopus
November..... Latin for ninth
December..... Latin for tenth as in decimal
January..... Named for janus
February..... Named for the festival of Februa

Before Numa, the calendar had only ten months in a year. During the rule of numa, january and february were added to the calendar as the 11th and 12th mths.



To be continued.....

ayenny02: NEW YEAR’S DAY

New year’s day is the biggest festival of the yearfor many christians. Christian believe new year marks another year since the “death of jesus. They believe that the year belongs to jesus christ; therefore the year is called Anno Domini, i.e “the year of the Lord (Christ)”, that is, the number of the year since Jesus “died”.

ORIGIN OF NEW YEAR

The first new year was celebrated in 713 BC. The guinness Book of Answer says, “The first recorded new year’s festival is that constituted by Numa 713 BC and dedicated to Janus.

Also (Robert J. Myers, Celebration) tell us that, “The Roman, in 152 BC, were the first to use january 1 as the beginning of the year” Note that BC means Before (the birth of) Christ. In other words before the birth of Christ, pagans had been celebrating the New year. The Bible does not record that jesus took part in such a celebration.
Numa dedicated the new year to janus, a roman god, from whom january is obtained. Janus was supposed to be a god with two heads!. The equivalent of janus among the yoruba is Esu: messenger of the gods; master of deception; curator of evils! Today, the festival dedicated to janus is sustained by New Year celebration

THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR

The gregorian calendar is named after pope gregory xiii. The calendar is so called because gregory xiii was the last person to “reform” its precursor, the julian calendar, in 1582 CE. The refprmation was thought necessary becos of inaccurancies in calculating the solar calendar

THE NUMAN CALENDAR

The first person to reform the calendar was Numa. He was also the first person to celebrate the new year festival, as it is currently known in the world.

Months origin
March.... Named for Mars
April.... Named for Aphrodite
May .... Named for Maia
June .... Named for Juno
Quintilis.... Latin for fifth as in quintusplets
Sextilis.... Latin for sixth as in sextet
September..... Latin for seventh as in septennial
October..... Latin for eighth as in octopus
November..... Latin for ninth
December..... Latin for tenth as in decimal
January..... Named for janus
February..... Named for the festival of Februa

Before Numa, the calendar had only ten months in a year. During the rule of numa, january and february were added to the calendar as the 11th and 12th mths.



To be continued.....

THE JULIAN CALENDAR
In 45 BC, julius caesar carried out his own “reform” of the calendar. On the advice of sosigenes, an astronomer, he brought january from 11th position and took it to the 1st position, and he took february from 12th position to the 2nd position

1st . january. 2nd. february. 3rd. March 4th. april. 5th. may. 6th june 7th quintils. 8th. Sextilis. 9th september 10th october. 11th november. 12th december.

In 44 BC, the roman senate decided to honour julius caesar by dedicating a mth to him. The fifth mth, quintilis (which had been pushed to the seventh position in julian calendar), was chosen. The mth was renamed july from the name julius.

In the yr 8 BC, eight yrs b4 Jesus is reckoned to have been born, the roman senate decided to honour the first emperor of rome, Augistus Caesar. Sexitilis was dedicated to Augustus Caesar. Sextilis was thus change to August from name Augustus Caesar

Julius Caesar’s mth, july, then had 31st days and Augustus Caesar’s mth, August, had 30 days. Augustus was not happy that August, his mth, was shorter than july, julius’ mth. So he reduced February from 29 to 28 days and added the day he had cut off from february to august. August thus became 31 days. Setember then had 31 days.

August did not want three mths following successively (i.e july, august and september) to have 31 days. So, he cut sept to 30 days, made october 31 days, reducednovember to 30 days and made december 31 days. That is how the months got their present lenghts. (encyclopaedia britannica)

EASTER

Easter is the period when christian celebrate the”death” and “resurrection” of Jesus Christ. It is a major celebration becos it is on the belief in the crucificaxion of jesus that christianity hangs.

ORIGIN OF EASTER

Is easter a biblical celebration?

“The celebration of Easter is believed to have begun in about 68 AD. The english word easter probably comes from Eostre, a saxon goddess whose festival was celebrated about the time of the vernal equinox” Easter was thus unknown to the disciples of Jesus Christ. (Guinness Book of Answer)

Encyclopaedia Btitannica says that “the Anglo-saxon priest venerable bede in the 8th century derived the word Easter from the Anglo-saxon spring goddess Eostre”

Does the word “Easter” apper in the Bible?
Nelson’s illustrated Bible Dictionary goes on to say “The only appearance of the word Easter (KJV) is a mistranslation of pascha, the ordinary greek word for “passover” (Acts 12:4)

ORIGIN OF EASTER PRACTICES

Encyclopaedia Britannical says, “As at Christmas, so also at Easter , popular customs reflect many ancient pagan survivals. In this instance, connected with spring fertility rites such as tthe symbols of the easter egg and easter hare or rabbit”. This is similar to the osun festival among pagan yorubas.

Easter begins with Ash Wednesday, followed by lent, which is a forty-days fasting observed by Orthodox and Aladura churches but rejected by pentecostal churches. Palm Sunday follows lent. Christian bear palm frond about to mark Jesus entry into jerusalem. This is followed by Good Friday, which most christians observed. They claimed that

Good Friday is the day Christ was crucified. Good Friday is “good” because according to them, jesus blood was shed to “wash away” their sins. The Monday after Good Friday is called Easter.